Red Sox Front Page Doubleheadline Edition

August 25, 2012

Its rare that the Boston Globe and Boston Herald feature the same story on Page One (the Herald, with a minuscule home-subscription base, designs its front page to maximize newsstand sales; the Globe, whose circulation is largely home-delivered, doesn’t bear that burden).

But today is an exception, proving that the current Red Sox squad is a uniter, not a divider. They’ve united the town in dislike for them.

First pages first (via The Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

Advantage: The Herald, hands down.

Now to the battle of the headlines.

Globe page C1:

Dealing with problem?

Red Sox on the verge of a trade that would send Beckett, Gonzalez, and Crawford to Dodgers

Herald page 30:

Sox poised to blow it all up, start anew

Bold first step in erasing foul stench

Advantage: The Herald again.

And finally, the all-important Number of Godfather References.

Globe: None.

Herald: One.

Whether or not the deal goes down, we now have beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt proof that Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington is prepared to make like Michael Corleone taking out the heads of the other four families in his own clubhouse.

Advantage: Take a wild guess.

At post time, both papers had announced the completed deal on their websites. The Herald (around 10 am) seemed to beat the Globe (12:29) by a good couple of hours.

Advantage: That’s right. The Herald.

 

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Rakin’ Akin Edition

August 24, 2012

Missouri Senate hopeless Todd Akin (R-Legitimate Rape) is the rift that keeps on on riving.

From yesterday’s Boston Herald:

Gail Huff touts Scott Brown’s independent spirit

Elizabeth Warren’s attempts to link Scott Brown to the rumpus over U.S. Rep. Todd Akin’s polarizing statements on rape will work to his advantage by distinguishing him from his own party’s anti-abortion platform, the U.S. senator’s wife said yesterday.

“I think it’s a gift to Scott because once again it shows that he’s an independent-minded man that’s not going to follow the doctrine or the dictation of anyone else, including his own party,” said Gail Huff, who is on leave from her television reporting job to campaign for her husband.

“He has two daughters, 24 and 21 years old. He understands better than anyone how important it is that women have the right to make their own decisions. …Here’s another example where he stood up to his party and said, ‘You know what, you’re wrong.’”

(Web video along the same lines here.)

The New York Times, which is sort of the fifth Beatle of the Boston newspaper scene, was even more lovey-dovey:

[Mr. Brown] was the first Republican senator to call on Mr. Akin to quit his race for the Senate. As Mr. Brown told a group of women here on Tuesday, he was feeling a little heady from the experience.

“Gail and I were laying in bed last night and talking a little bit, as we do every night,” he said, “and I said: ‘Honey, can you imagine? Here I am, Scott Brown from Wrentham, and I’ve got a truck that’s got 238,000 miles on it and, you know, something like this comes up and I’m the first guy in the country to even bring it up and tell the guy to step down,’ ” Mr. Brown said.

Yeah . . . except he wasn’t.

From the Boston Globe:

[Brown] spoke out less than 24 hours after Akin made his comment, under an hour after Romney condemned it during an interview with the National Review, and 15 minutes after President Obama ventured into the White House Briefing Room to declare that the American people disagreed with the Missouri congressman.

That’s par for the course for Brown (R-Papaya King), who routinely overstates his routine accomplishments.

File under: What else is new?

 

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Pesky Funeral Edition

August 23, 2012

The Boston Herald is decidedly not happy with the turnout for Johnny Pesky’s funeral by current Boston Red Sox players.

Or lack of turnout, to be precise.

It starts at the top of today’s front page (via The Newseum).

Next up: Joe Fitzgerald’s column.

Shame on Red Sox players

They’re the slowest-moving targets in town, easy to ridicule as they stagger to the merciful end of this dreadful season, but the Red Sox [team stats], as a team, could have hit one out of the park just by showing up at Johnny Pesky’s funeral.

That’s all they had to do, even if they didn’t feel a personal urge to show up, which might have been the case for many of them . . .

All they had to do was show up.

What a shame they didn’t, not for Johnny, but for them.

Not to get technical about it, but four current players did show up, as the Track Gals (and Megan!) pointed out in this item that had Sox management on the defensive.

Lucchino defends players who skipped Pesky funeral

Red Sox [team stats] president Larry Lucchino this morning defended his team for the small turnout at Johnny Pesky’s funeral earlier this week, saying it was “unnecessary to focus on that issue.”

“I think the people who knew Johnny best came to it,” Lucchino told WEEI’sDennis & Callahan.

Lucchino told the station that the team had more than 100 mourners at the service including front office staff, ownership, current players, staff and former players.

“It was a very impressive turnout,” he said.

But among current players only David Ortiz [stats], Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Vincente Padilla and Clay Buchholz were in the pews for Pesky’s final farewell. (Manager Bobby Valentine was also there.)

The Gals finish off the item (and the Sox players) with a flourish: “Despite the small turnout at Pesky’s final farewell, most of the team turned out that night for Josh Beckett’s  annual Beckett Bowl and concert at Lucky Strike Lanes and the House of Blues that night.”

To be sure, the Beckett Bowl is for a good cause, but ouch!

 

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Taylor Swift Cape House Final Edition

August 23, 2012

The hardreading staff’s Taylor Swift bureau has diligently tracked – and Tracked! – the rumpus over whether she did or did not buy the Hyannisport house next door to boyfriend Conor Kennedy’s grandma Ethel. Locally, the Boston Herald said she made  the creepy-stalky purchase while the Boston Globe said the jury’s still out.

We now seem to have a verdict, thanks to the Cape Cod Times (via New York magazine’s Vulture):

Hope’s dashed: It’s not Taylor Swift’s house

It turns out, those rumors just weren’t true. A New York hedge fund manager — not Taylor Swift — signed a contract to buy the house next door to the Kennedy compound, according to the real estate agency representing the property’s seller.

Paul Grover, a principal in Robert Paul Properties, said the buyer signed a contract for the home at 27 Marchant Ave. in Hyannisport, but the sale has not closed yet.

So there’s still, er, hope?

We hope not.

Regardless, it’s good to live in a three-daily town, yes?

 

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Taylor Swift Wedding Crasher Edition

August 22, 2012

From the evidence in today’s Boston dailies, Taylor Swift is not the most welcome guest in and around town.

Start with the Boston Herald, where the Track Gals (and Megan!) produced this startling report:

Kennedy mom: Taylor Swift crashed wedding

Taylor Swift crashed the Kennedy wedding in Boston over the weekend and did not leave after being twice asked to do so, the mother of the bride, Victoria Gifford Kennedy, told the Track yesterday.

But Swift’s publicist insisted that the country superstar was a welcome guest and that the bride was happy to have her share the spotlight.

A source at the hotel reported seeing Swift being asked to leave the Fairmont Copley Plaza hotel where Kyle Kennedy, the daughter of the late Michael Kennedy and Victoria Gifford Kennedy, was celebrating her marriage to Liam Kerr on Saturday. So we rang up Vicki for the 411.

“They texted me an hour before the wedding and asked if they could come,” Vicki Kennedy said. “I responded with a very clear, ‘Please do not come.’ They came anyway. … I personally went up to Ms. Swift, whose entrance distracted the entire event, politely introduced myself to her, and asked her as nicely as I could to leave. It was like talking to a ghost. She seemed to look right past me.”

Funny, she does the same thing to us.

Over at the Globe, the hardreading staff’s plaintive request on WBUR’s Radio Boston last Friday – namely, would someone figure out if Swift actually bought a house on the Cape or not? – was very kindly answered in todays Names column.  And the answer is: Nobody knows.

It’s been widely rumored that the country singer, who’s currently dating Conor Kennedy, plunked down $4.9 million — a tiny fraction of her sizable fortune — to buy the 4,440-square-foot gray shingle spread across the street from Ethel Kennedy ’s place in Hyannis Port.

But it’s tough to confirm. The deed on the property is held by Coleman Limited Partnership of Greenwich, Conn., and calls to the previous owner, Nancy Coleman, were not returned. Meanwhile, an employee at the Barnstable County Registry of Deeds — who told us he’s talked to “tons” of reporters trying to confirm the sale — said if Swift did indeed purchase the place, her name would not necessarily appear on public records.

Okay, then. But one thing the Namesniks do know: “While Swift herself is welcome in town, some residents we spoke to aren’t so wild about the press and paparazzi that have followed her.”

Well, at least we’ve got that cleared up.

 

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Herald Snubs Globe’s RadioBDC Edition

August 21, 2012

In his column today, Boston Herald music scribe Jed Gottlieb laments the loss of local radio talent on Boston’s airwaves.

The Last DJs

Hub radio lacks character after purge

Boston’s airwaves have been stripped of personality.

Last month, the signal for alternative flagship WFNX (101.7 FM) was sold to Clear Channel, which turned the station into generic hits station The Harbor. In June, CBS Radio laid off staff and turned WODS (103.3 FM) classic hits into the jock-less Top 40 Amp Radio.

“I still feel like we just lost ’BCN (which went off the air in 2009) and ’FNX was the last man standing against all the robot radio,” said Parlour Bells frontman Glenn di Benedetto, who wrote the Hub rock anthem “Airwaves” in tribute to WFNX. “(Former-WFNX DJ) Julie Kramer said, ‘Your local DJ knows when it’s raining outside,’ and I put that in my song because I liked what it meant. With DJ-free radio, there’s no personality, no sense of community.”

That’s all true, if incomplete. Gotlieb fails to mention that ‘FNX has migrated wholesale to the Boston Globe’s RadioBDC, which describes itself this way:

RadioBDC is Boston’s only live hosted, streaming alternative station. We feature music, news, contests and the best breaking bands in the alternative format. Listen each weekday to hear Henry Santoro, Julie Kramer, Adam 12 & Paul Driscoll.

Is that essential to Gotlieb’s column? No.

Is it relevant? Yes.

Is omitting it petty? The hardreading staff says, definitely.

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Is Taylor Swift a Cape Cod Homeowner? Edition

August 20, 2012

When the hardreading staff last left our Taylor Swift bureau, we had received conflicting reports about whether she had actually purchased a house next door to/across the street from Ethel Kennedy’s manse in Hyannisport/Hyannis Port (per the Boston Herald/Globe).

Then . . . nothing. No resolution. Just confusion and anxiety.

Which was alleviated not at all by this piece in the Herald’s Inside Track today:

Taylor Swift’s storybook romance

Taylor Swift’s summer fling with the Kennedy clan continued over the weekend. On Friday, she and her BF, 18-year-old Conor Kennedy, were smooching in Hyannisport, on Saturday, they were in Boston for a Kennedy wedding and yesterday, they were back in church in Centerville.

The fun began Friday afternoon when Conor and Tay Tay, both dressed in shorts, played a little tonsil hockey on the dock in Hyannisport. The lovebirds were soooooo busy macking on each other, they paid no attention to boaters who were cruising the busy dock, taking in the PDA.

Right – later they went to the wedding, then the lovebirds sashayed through Haymarket and the North End, then it was back to the Cape where they attended Sunday Mass and where Swift MIGHT OR MIGHT NOT OWN A HOUSE.

The Track Gals (and Megan!) – normally a storehouse of information – don’t say.

The hardreading staff just wishes someone would.

 

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Whitey Bulger Moll 1.0 Edition

August 19, 2012

Atop yesterday’s Boston Globe Metro section:

Teresa Stanley, Bulger’s other longtime mate, dead at 71

She was the other woman in James “Whitey” Bulger’s life, the one who spent nearly 30 years with the gangster but refused to leave her family to stay with him on the run.

Teresa Stanley died of lung cancer Thursday morning at her home in South Boston, surrounded by her family. She was 71.

And the Boston Herald?

The dime-droppin’, mob-mockin’ feisty local tabloid had  . . . nothin’.

The Saturday Herald headline that wasn’t:

Bulger Now Minus His Reluctant Plus One

Instead, the Herald had this lame website caboose yesterday afternoon:

Teresa Stanley, former Whitey moll, dies of lung cancer at 71

Teresa Stanley, the onetime Whitey Bulger moll who left behind a cross-country life on the lam to return to her family in South Boston, has died of lung cancer, her family said. She was 71.

“She was truly just a beautiful woman,” her son-in-law, Ron Adams, told the Herald. “To look at her, you would know that. But what a lot of people didn’t know is how beautiful she was on the inside as well.”

Yeah, except the Globe’s quote from Adams was much better:

“She was a beautiful person, both inside and out, who carried herself with tremendous grace and dignity, at times under some difficult and challenging circumstances,” her son-in-law, Ron Adams, said Friday during a brief telephone interview. “She died peacefully surrounded by her family and friends. She will be missed by all.”

Bottom line: The Herald got totally pwned by the Globe on this story.

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Herald Whoopie Gold Edition

August 17, 2012

This week the Boston Herald has been making whoopie pies a major issue, and the results have been sweet for the feisty local tabloid.

It started with this front page on Wednesday:

Lede of the cover story:

A Walpole baker — appalled that welfare abuse now seems almost as American as apple pie — is putting her whoopie pies where her mouth is in a dispute with the Braintree Farmers Market, refusing to take EBT cards for her baked treats.

I don’t think American taxpayers should be footing the bill for people’s pie purchases,” said Andrea Taber, proprietor of the Ever So Humble Pie Co. in Walpole, who peddles her wares at the Braintree market on Fridays and now finds herself in the middle of the state’s raging fight over welfare benefits.

“To me it’s no different than nail salons and Lottery tickets,” Taber said. “It’s pastry, it’s dessert. My pies are great, but come on.”

So the Herald went on, devoting two full pages to the story yesterday – one of them a sampling of reader reactions like these:

“Let’s make a statement by making her a national symbol and a millionaire for standing up to the welfare-government industrial complex!” — libertytree

“Even poor children deserve a treat.” —sailor21

“We need a few thousand more just like her and our country will be back on the right track.” — davejss

“Your missing the point entirely …WE are buying the pies, NOT the welfare lay-a-bout. Get it?” — Wesley_Mouch2

“Sure I get it, we are also ‘buying’ the wars, the Wall St. bailout the tax breaks for the uber wealthy, and many many many many other things that are a lot more pressing and expensive than a whoopie pie, you get it ?” — RatzoRizzo

There was also the obligatory Howie Carr drive-by, and a story about the previous day’s story:

Baker story causes stir on the Internet

A Walpole baker’s controversial refusal to take EBT card payments for her gourmet pastries exploded into the national spotlight yesterday, as her whoopie pie fight with a local farmers market emerged as the latest battle in the growing welfare policy war.

The Herald’s report on Andrea Taber’s dispute with the Braintree Farmers Market, which wants her to accept tokens paid for with EBT cards for her baked goods, was read online by more than 250,000 people nationwide, garnering more than 750 comments. It made the rounds on Facebook and Twitter, and was picked up by The Drudge Report, Fark.com, Reddit.com, Lucianne.com and Freerepublic.com. She is due to appear on Fox and Friends and Neil Cavuto’s Your World today. She fielded calls from talk shows all day.

“My email is just incinerated,” Taber said. “Ninety-five percent of it is positive. There is a fair amount of venom coming my way.”

Today’s Herald features Gov. Deval Patrick dodging the issue, the Herald editors flogging it:

Whoopie for courage

Just once wouldn’t it be wonderful if bureaucrats applied a small dose of common sense from time to time.

Case in point: Andrea Taber, owner of Ever So Humble Pie Co., has taken a principled stance and chooses not to sell her whoopie pies and other pastries to those presenting SNAP vouchers at her stand at the Braintree Farmers Market. Now she faces possible eviction from her market stall.

“I don’t think American taxpayers should be footing the bill for people’s pie purchases,” Taber told the Herald.

Whoopie for courage?

Easy as pie for the feisty local tabloid.

 

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The Young Immigrunts Edition

August 16, 2012

(With apologies to Ring Lardner)

Today’s Boston bakeoff features the new Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program that allows young undocumented immigrants avoid deportation and obtain work permits for at least two years.

For once, the Boston Globe and the Boston Herald are perfect complements to one another: the Globe has facts, the Herald has opinions.

The Globe piece is a standard, albeit sympathetic, news report detailing the particulars of the new policy and documenting the efforts of would-be applicants to take advantage of it.

Earlier Wednesday, about 20 members of the Student Immigrant Movement gathered on Friend Street in Boston to share tips and pointers on filling out the application.

Isabel Vargas, who came to the United States from the Dominican Republic when she was 8 years old, told others at the meeting, held in the offices of Greater Boston Legal Services, that the opportunity to apply would transform her future.

“When I apply for a job, I don’t have to be all nervous about what Social Security number I’m going to give,” Vargas, 20, said.

Today’s Herald, meanwhile, has no news report but does feature two opinion pieces.

The first is an editorial:

Immigration muddle

President Barack Obama has created what looks to be a 50-state muddle as local officials are left to grapple with the consequences of his unilateral rewriting of the nation’s immigration policy.

Now make no mistake, we’re with New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg andNews Corp. [NWS] head Rupert Murdoch (the former owner of this paper) in their call for genuine immigration reform that will contribute to the country’s growth. The two men were in town Tuesday to make their pitch for just such a new and dispassionate look at the issue.

But Obama’s election year epiphany that he could implement his own version of the DREAM Act by executive order, granting at least a temporary amnesty to young illegal immigrants, has left states to sort out what exactly that will mean.

The second is an op-ed:

Obama ‘law’ helps illegals

What does President Barack Obama call a bill which has repeatedly failed in Congress?

A law!

The Department of Homeland Security yesterday began accepting applications for the “Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals” (DACA) amnesty program. The move will award renewable two-year grants of legal status, including work cards and Social Security numbers, to illegal aliens claiming to have arrived before their 16th birthday.

Huh – maybe this division of labor between the Globe and the Herald will catch on.

One could cover Red Sox games, for instance, while the other concentrates on the players’ submarining of Bobby Valentine.

Or one could cover the U.S. Senate race while the other makes Indian jokes.

Oh, wait – they’re already doing that one.

P.S. You really should read Lardner’s The Young Immigrunts (linked above). It’s a hoot.

 

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